Thai troops target anti-government protest holdouts

by Jocelyn Gecker - May. 20, 2010 12:00 AMAssociated Press

BANGKOK, Thailand - Buildings smoldered across central Bangkok early today and troops exchanged sporadic fire with pockets of holdouts a day after the army routed anti-government protesters in a push to end Thailand's deadliest political violence in nearly 20 years.

The government quelled most of the violence in the battered Thai capital but not the underlying political divisions that caused it, and unrest spread to the north and northeast.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva imposed a nighttime curfew in the capital and 23 other provinces and said his government would restore calm. Although leaders of the Red Shirt demonstrators surrendered, sporadic clashes between troops and remaining protesters continued early this morning.

As night fell Wednesday, Bangkok's skyline was blotted by fire and smoke from more than two dozen buildings set ablaze - including Thailand's stock exchange, main power company, banks, a movie theater and one of Asia's largest shopping malls.

At least six people were killed in clashes that followed the army's storming of the protest camp Wednesday. Witnesses said another six to eight bodies were in a temple where hundreds of demonstrators had sought sanctuary.

Early this morning, troops in the central business district, occupied by protesters for weeks, exchanged occasional fire with holdouts as locals in the area looted a vast tent city the activists had cobbled together.

Since the Red Shirts began their protest in mid-March, at least 74 people - mostly civilians - have been killed and nearly 1,800 wounded. Of those, 45 people have died in clashes that started May 13 after the army tried to blockade their 1-square-mile camp.

While many of the rioters were believed to be members of the Red Shirts and their sympathizers, there was also an element of criminals and hoodlums involved in the mayhem in the city of 10 million people. The protest and violence in one of Southeast Asia's most stable countries has damaged its economy and tourism industry.

With the top Red Shirt leaders in custody, it was unclear what the next move would be for the protesters who had demanded the ouster of the prime minister's government, the dissolution of parliament and new elections. The protesters, poor farmers or members of the urban underclass, say Abhisit came to power illegitimately and is oblivious to their plight.

The crackdown should silence the government supporters who were urging a harder line, and the rioting that followed may extinguish the widespread sympathy many had for the protesters' cause.

But that violence also showed an intelligence lapse by the military, and the failure to secure areas of the capital raised doubt over how unrest in the north and northeast can be stilled.

Many Thais feel that any short-term peace may have been purchased at the price of further polarization that will lead to years of bitter, cyclical conflict.

"The Reds rampaged and committed to armed resistance," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "Right now, they are just burning buildings, but later on, what if they picked up arms to fight the bureaucrats, security forces in other parts of Bangkok, and especially in the countryside? So this is just the beginning. The crackdown didn't make them retreat fully. Things will get much worse still."